JP2011527474A - Method for transferring a message to a target destination via communication between vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

  A method is provided for forwarding a message to at least one target destination. An embodiment of the present invention is performed by a first vehicle and receiving geographic information of the second vehicle; determining a relationship between the geographic information and at least one target destination; Depending on the result of the decision, conditionally sending a message to the second vehicle. The geographical information comprises at least one of a second vehicle position, a route and a destination.

Description

  The present invention relates generally to vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for delivering a message to one or more target destinations via communication between vehicles.

  As a conventional method of communication between vehicles, nearby vehicles exchange their relative positions. Based on the position data, it has been proposed that the safety of the vehicle is enhanced by, for example, a vehicle collision avoidance system and an autonomous vehicle formation system. Details of the inter-vehicle communication technique are described in US Pat. No. 6,985,089. U.S. Pat. No. 6,707,378 describes another prior art.

  There are several problems and disadvantages in conventional inter-vehicle communication technology. One of the main problems is that information is broadcast without direction. For example, US Pat. No. 6,985,089 teaches repeating the transmission multiple times to increase the probability of delivery. As a result, redundant messages may saturate the communication channel and delivery probability is low.

US Pat. No. 6,985,089 US Pat. No. 6,707,378

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for directing and delivering messages to one or more target destinations via communication between vehicles.

  According to a first aspect, a method is provided for forwarding a message to at least one target destination. The method includes receiving geographic information for a second vehicle, determining a relationship between the geographic information and at least one target destination, and depending on a result of the determination, to the second vehicle. Sending the message conditionally, and the aforementioned steps are performed by the first vehicle. The geographical information includes at least one of a second vehicle position, a route, and a destination. An electronic navigation system may be applied as one source of geographic information.

  As a typical example, messages are exchanged if the relationship indicates that the second vehicle is suitable for participating in forwarding messages to the at least one target destination. The target destination may be stationary or mobile. In the latter case, the mobility of the target destination can be taken into account when determining the relationship between the geographical information of the second vehicle and the (movable) target destination. Specifically, the target destination may be different from the second vehicle. For example, the target destination may be a roadside destination. A typical example of a roadside destination may be a police station or the Internet or other communication gateway. In certain cases, the target destination may be the second vehicle itself.

  As understood herein, vehicles also include non-powered vehicles, including bicycles, people riding on bicycles, or pedestrians. The methods described herein can be performed by or in conjunction with a mobile phone, laptop or mobile (personal) or stationary electronic navigation system.

  The message may include information about the at least one target destination, either implicit (eg, in the form of an identifier) or explicit (eg, in the form of geographic coordinates). The message may further include event information regarding the event. The event may cause traffic obstruction or cause traffic delays. As an example, natural phenomena (falling trees on the road, landslides, etc.) may cause the road to be blocked. The message or event information regarding such events may include, for example, warnings for other road users. In another important case, the detected event may be related to an accident. The accident may be related to another vehicle in the vicinity of the first vehicle or may be related to the first vehicle itself.

  The event information may include at least one of the time, location, and type of the event. The time of the event may be used to assign a priority to the message. Further, the time limit may be defined based on the event time. Messages that have not reached their target destination before the time limit expires may be abandoned. The location may be used to direct rescue to the location of the event. If the event information includes an event type, the event type may identify a technical failure, an accident, a natural event or a predefined traffic situation.

  The method further includes detecting an event. Events include cases of technical failures and first vehicle accidents, and may be detected inside the first vehicle (ie, onboard). The event may also be detected outside the first vehicle. The detection of external events is useful, for example, in the case of another vehicle outage or accident.

  The method also includes generating a message. The step of detecting an event and the step of generating a message may be related in that the generation of the message is triggered by the detection of the event.

  The method may further include selecting at least one target destination from the target destination set. The selection may depend on at least one of event information and geographic information. For example, this selection may take into account one or more target destinations along the planned route of the second vehicle. In the step of selecting at least one target destination, the roadside destination may be preferred for the purpose of being in communication range while the second vehicle passes through the roadside destination.

  The step of determining the relationship may include evaluating whether the position of the second vehicle is within the area of the event. This allows, for example, a first vehicle that has passed an event location to send a message to a second vehicle approaching as a result of the determination before the second vehicle reaches the event. To do.

  Additionally or alternatively, determining the relationship may include assessing whether the route of the second vehicle is approaching the event or encountering an area of the event. In this case, the route of the second vehicle can be derived directly from the received geographical information including the route of the second vehicle, or the route is in accordance with the destination of the second vehicle. Can be calculated. If the route of the second vehicle is approaching the event, a message can be sent to the second vehicle as a result of the determination. This measure may be beneficial for the second vehicle, for example to avoid events.

  Whenever the received geographic information includes the location of the second vehicle, the relationship may be determined based on this location. This is effective, for example, when there is only one lane and this is occupied by a long train of vehicles. When forwarding a message to a second vehicle in front of the first vehicle, the message travels through the train and thus travels faster than the average travel speed of the train.

  Still further, determining the relevancy may include determining whether the destination of the second vehicle is within the event area. If the destination of the second vehicle is within the event area, the message may be related to the second vehicle. Thus, a message can be sent to the second vehicle as a result of the determination.

  Further, it may be determined whether the position of the second vehicle is near or close to at least one target destination as compared to the position or route of the first vehicle. As understood herein, “closer”, “closer” and similar distance-related phrases are defined in terms of shortest distance, road distance, travel time, or a combination thereof. Is possible.

  Further, determining the relationship may include evaluating whether the route of the second vehicle approaches at least one target destination. The selection of at least one target destination may also depend on the route of the second vehicle. In this case, the at least one target destination can be selected such that the second vehicle approaches the target destination.

  The method further includes determining a first discriminator for a first vehicle that approaches at least one (eg, any one of possible target destination sets) target destination. Can be included. As an example, the first discriminator may quantify a parameter indicative of a first vehicle that comes within communication range with at least one target destination. The determined discriminator can be estimated or calculated by a map matching algorithm or can be retrieved from a location distance list.

  A second discriminator for a second vehicle approaching at least one target destination (eg, any one of possible target destination sets) may also be determined. The second discriminator can be quantified at the first vehicle or can be received from the second vehicle. The second discriminator may be received with geographic information or after information regarding at least one target destination is transmitted to the second vehicle.

  The second discriminator may identify a second vehicle approaching a target destination that is different from the target destination considered by the first discriminator for the first vehicle. This makes it possible to evaluate different vehicles and different target destinations. Whenever the first discriminator and the second discriminator are available, the method may further comprise comparing both discriminators.

  As an example, the discriminators can be chosen to be time periods or distance measures. The discriminator can be calculated by the electronic navigation system based on a known route or a calculated route. Furthermore, it is possible to have a combination of time duration and distance measure, for example according to a time and distance weighting method. The weighting method may take into account the characteristics of the first and second vehicles such as the average speed. According to another aspect, the method may include receiving device information regarding the mobile communication device of the second vehicle. This step may be combined with the step of receiving geographical information. Alternatively, the device information may be received only when requested by the first vehicle. The decision to send a message to the second vehicle may further depend on the device information. For example, if the event is an emergency, the message is forwarded to the second vehicle if a vehicle-specific communication device such as a cell phone or police phone is accessible.

  Whenever it is beneficial to know the route of the second vehicle, the method may further include the step of calculating the route of the second vehicle based on the received geographical information. If an electronic navigation system is present in the first vehicle, the route calculation for the second vehicle can be performed by the navigation system onboard the first vehicle.

  According to a further aspect, a method is provided for forwarding a message to at least one target destination, the method being performed by a first vehicle to determine geographical information of the first vehicle; Transmitting the target information to the second vehicle and receiving a message from the second vehicle for forwarding to the target destination in response to the transmission of the geographic information. The geographical information includes at least one of a first vehicle position, a route, and a destination.

  A message for forwarding to the at least one target destination may be received from the second vehicle. Alternatively, the message can be received from a second vehicle to form a side branch of a communication chain. This is effective, for example, for warning messages or for “carbon copy” messages.

  As described above, the received message may include at least one of event information and information regarding the target destination. The method may also include processing a received message. Processing of received messages may depend on at least one target destination. The method may further include selecting at least one target destination depending on at least one of event information and geographic information. The dependence on geographical information occurs, for example, when at least one target destination is chosen according to the route of the second vehicle. Dependence on event information may ensure that the message is related to the selected destination destination.

  The method may further include the step of transmitting and / or receiving a discriminator for the first vehicle approaching the at least one target destination. The step of sending a discriminator may precede the step of receiving a message from the second vehicle so that the discriminator can be analyzed before the second vehicle sends the message. Thus, the step of receiving the message may depend on the discriminator transmitted to the second vehicle.

  According to yet another aspect, a method for transferring a message to at least one target destination is performed by a first vehicle, detecting an event by the first vehicle, and a message in response to detecting the event. Generating a message that includes at least one of event information and a target destination and transmitting the message to the second vehicle for transmission to the target destination.

  The method may further include receiving an acknowledgment of accepting the message or rejection of the message from the second vehicle. The received receipt notification may further include at least one target destination to which the second vehicle intends to transfer a message. The method may further include sending the message repeatedly. The step of repeatedly sending is triggered if the message is rejected by the second vehicle or if the message is to be forwarded to another target destination not acknowledged by the second vehicle. Also good. In the step of detecting an event, the event may be detected by the first vehicle (or within the first vehicle). The following are additional features that can be combined with any of the methods described herein.

  The above transmitting and receiving steps and methods may be applied to wireless communications. The applied wireless communication can be based on high frequency signals. Among the appropriate methods and standards that are eligible for communication between vehicles in the context of the present invention are dedicated narrow area communication (DSRC) for communication between vehicles, well-established Bluetooth (trademark) for narrow area communication. ) Technologies (IEEE 802.15.1) or WiFi ™ (IEEE 802.11) and other mobile computing technologies. It is understood that wireless communication is not at all limited to such standards or high frequency signal transmission. In addition, any wireless communication technology including infrared signal transmission or supersonic signal transmission may be applied.

  Any method may further include signaling information about the generated or received message inside or outside the first vehicle. As an example, the received message or any information portion thereof may be displayed on the vehicle display. Further, the information included in the message may be acoustically signaled within at least one of the first and second vehicles. For this purpose, a speech synthesis mechanism may be applied.

  As already briefly described, the target destinations associated with the first and second vehicles may be different. This includes separation of the target destination sets considered in connection with the vehicle in the sense that they do not have a common target destination. Further, one or more target destinations may be the same for the first and second vehicles. Different target destinations may be applied for the discriminator described above.

  Further, any of the methods described herein may include sending a message to at least one target destination (eg, upon entering the target destination's communication range). One possible target destination includes another vehicle or a fixed destination (specifically, a roadside destination). In this regard, an in-vehicle mobile phone or other in-vehicle communication mechanism may be applied. The decision to prefer a narrow-area wireless communication system and use an in-vehicle mobile phone may depend on message priority. For example, a traffic accident message may have the priority to use any available or accessible communication.

  Merging messages that have at least one target destination in common is also considered. This process may further include analyzing the content of the message. Based on the results of the analysis, redundant or identical messages can be avoided from being forwarded. In particular, redundant information or the same information may be deleted from the message.

  Further, the message may be augmented with additional information (eg, information that occurs during driving). For example, if the content is associated with a type of event, or if it is related to at least one target destination, the vehicle hosting the message may add this content to the message. Further, the additional information may include data on the in-vehicle sensor or information on traffic congestion. Such additional information may be derived from sensors that detect movement of the host vehicle or adjacent vehicles.

  According to a further aspect, a computer program product is provided that is executed on one or more computing devices, eg, a transceiver device or a device adapted to be used on board a vehicle. Then, it comprises program code portions for performing the steps of one or more of the methods and method aspects described herein. The computer program product is stored in a computing device or in a permanent or rewritable memory associated with the computing device or a computer readable recording medium such as a removable memory card, CD-ROM, DVD or USB stick. May be. Alternatively or additionally, the computer program product may be provided for downloading to a computing device via a data network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line or wireless link.

  According to yet another aspect, a device is provided that is adapted for use on board a first vehicle and forwards a message to at least one target destination. The device includes a receiver, a processor, and a transmitter. The receiver is adapted to receive geographical information regarding at least one of the position, route and destination of the second vehicle. The processor is adapted to determine a relationship between the geographic information and the at least one target destination. The transmitter is adapted to conditionally send a message to the second vehicle depending on the result of the determination. The processor can be adapted to receive or determine a discriminator as described above that can quantify the relevance.

  According to yet another aspect, a device is provided that is adapted for use by a first vehicle and forwards a message to at least one target destination, the device comprising a processor, a transmitter, a receiver, Is provided. The processor is adapted to determine geographic information regarding at least one of the position, route and destination of the first vehicle. The transmitter is adapted to transmit geographical information to the second vehicle. The receiver is adapted to receive a message for transfer from the second vehicle to the target destination in response to the transmission of geographic information. The processor may be further adapted to process the received message. Processing of the received message may depend on at least one target destination.

  According to yet another aspect, a device is provided that is adapted for use by a first vehicle and forwards a message to at least one target destination, the device comprising a detector, a processor, a transmitter, Is provided. The detector is adapted to detect an event by the first vehicle. The processor is adapted to generate a message in response to detecting the event, wherein the message includes at least one of event information and a target destination. The transmitter is adapted to send a message to the second vehicle for delivery to the target destination.

  The following are additional features that can be combined with any of the devices described herein.

  Each device may further comprise a signaling unit adapted to signal information about the message. In order to signal the information outside the first vehicle, the signaling unit may apply a vehicle signal such as a warning light or a horn. The signaling unit may be further adapted to signal information inside the first vehicle. The signaling unit may also include a display to display the signaled information or may access the display. Additionally or alternatively, the signaling unit may comprise or access a speaker or audio system for acoustically signaling information. In the latter case, the signaling unit may also include an electronic speech synthesizer that generates a speech signal associated with the received message.

  Each device may further comprise an electronic navigation system, such as a satellite navigation system, or may have access to the electronic navigation system. The processor may form the processing part of the navigation system or may be adapted to process the results of the navigation system. Such results of the navigation system may include the route or road distance or time period estimated by the electronic navigation system. It is also beneficial to adapt the processor to process such results and calculate the aforementioned discriminator in determining the relationship. The processor may also be adapted to include event information regarding the event in the message. The processor may be further adapted to select at least one target destination depending on the event information or the geographical information.

Further details, aspects and advantages will be described with reference to the drawings.
The route of two vehicles and the position of the two vehicles before passing an event are shown roughly. FIG. 2 shows the situation after FIG. 1 when one of the two vehicles passes the event. Fig. 4 shows the transmission and reception of geographical information as both vehicles enter the communication range. Fig. 4 schematically shows the reception and transmission of messages. It schematically shows that the message is hosted by the other of the two vehicles. It schematically shows that the message is being sent to the target destination. Fig. 3 schematically shows a module of a device embodiment mounted on a vehicle for transferring messages. FIG. 4 illustrates steps of an embodiment of a method performed to send a message. FIG. 4 illustrates steps of an embodiment of a method performed to send a message. Fig. 4 illustrates steps of an embodiment of a complementary method for receiving a message. Fig. 4 shows steps of a further method embodiment.

  In the following description, for purposes of explanation, and not limitation, specific details such as individual steps for forwarding a message to at least one target destination are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific aspects.

  Those skilled in the art will recognize that the functions described herein are application specific integrated circuits using software that works in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor or general purpose computer using individual hardware circuits. It is understood that (ASIC) may be used and / or may be implemented using one or more digital signal processors (DSPs). The invention, when embodied in a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, also performs one of the method steps described herein when the memory is executed by the processor. It is also understood that the encoding is performed by the above program.

  In the following embodiments, efficient transfer of messages to at least one target destination is facilitated using communication between vehicles. Efficiency arises from the geographic information that can be provided by the navigation system. The navigation system may be a self-contained in-vehicle system or a distributed system that is partly mounted and positioned in a vehicle and partly positioned at one or more remote sites, and individual system parts are ( For example, they are configured to communicate with each other (using a cell communication method).

  1 to 6 show the routes and geographical positions of the first vehicle 10 and the second vehicle 12 in time order. Each of the vehicles 10 and 12 includes a wireless network module 14, an electronic navigation system 16, a processor 50, and a memory module 52 accessible to the processor 50, as schematically shown in FIG. Equipped. The electronic navigation system can use a satellite. To achieve this goal, a Global Positioning System (GPS) or Galileo Navigation System signal is received from a satellite. In cases where communication with a sufficient number of satellites is not possible, or in other cases, the electronic navigation system may locate the vehicle within the mobile network. To achieve this goal, mobile communication networks are most frequently applied (eg, the signal strength of known base stations can be compared).

  Alternatively, the location is requested directly (eg, from a mobile communication service provider). For the purposes of increasing positioning accuracy or in the absence of an external position signal, the navigation system may track the current position of the vehicle using in-vehicle sensors (eg, steering sensors and speed and acceleration sensors). Furthermore, any equivalent method can be applied to evaluate at least one of location, route and destination.

  The destinations of the first vehicle 10 and the second vehicle 12 are stored in the corresponding navigation system 16 and are identified as location 18 and location 20 respectively in FIG. The route 22 of the first vehicle leads to its destination 18 and the route 24 of the vehicle 12 leads to its destination 20. Routes 22 and 24 are calculated by the navigation system 16 and / or stored in the vehicle 10 and vehicle 12.

  In the situation shown in FIG. 1, an event 26 occurs on the roadside along the route 22 of the first vehicle 10. The event 26 is, for example, an accident that blocks the opposite lane of the route 22 of the vehicle 10.

  The map of FIG. 1 also shows two roadside destination destinations 28 and 30, at least one of which is a police station to be notified about the occurrence of the event. The target destination 28 is positioned on the road side of the route 22 of the vehicle 10, and the target destination 30 is positioned at the branch point of the route 24 of the vehicle 12. The shortest distance between the route 22 and the route 24 corresponding to each of the target destination 28 and the target destination 30 is enough to be within the communication range of the wireless network module 14 installed in the vehicle 10 and the vehicle 12. Length.

  While the first vehicle 10 passes through the event 26, the event 26 is detected by the detecting unit 32 schematically shown in FIG. The detection unit 32 receives data from the sensor unit 44, that is, one or more sensors connected to the sensor unit 44. In addition to or as an alternative to such automatic detection, the vehicle occupant can input information via the user interface of the driving assistance system 42. An inexpensive embodiment of the user interface may be a switch or a keyboard. In the present embodiment, the signaling unit 38 of the driving support system 42 includes a touch screen that provides a user interface function. In an advanced embodiment, a microphone and a voice recognition device are additionally installed to provide contactless input to the vehicle occupant.

  In addition to the external event 26 shown in FIGS. 1-6, the type of event in the vehicle includes a “slippery road surface” detected by a sensor of an anti-slip control system, a camera or a front fog lamp / rear fog lamp Detected by the fact that the switch is turned on, “acceleration sensor”, airbag sensor, “car accident” detected by input via camera or user interface, detected by theft alarm device of the first vehicle 10 Types such as “car theft in progress” and “medical emergency” detected by input via an acceleration sensor, airbag sensor or user interface.

  The flowchart 800 of FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrates an embodiment of the method steps performed by the processor 50 mounted on the vehicle 10, and the flowchart 900 of FIG. 9 is executable by the processor 50 mounted on the vehicle 12. Fig. 4 shows complementary or combinable steps of a method embodiment.

  Triggered by event 810 detection 810, the detected event 26 is assigned an evidence value. The evidence value represents the reliability of the sensor applied at detection 810 and the quality and importance of the received signal.

  The message 34 according to step 812 of FIG. 8 is generated only when the evidence value exceeds the message threshold. Thereby, the “false event” in the first vehicle 10 can be efficiently eliminated. As shown in FIG. 2, message 34 has already been generated and is now hosted by vehicle 10. The message 34 includes event information based on the data received from the detection unit 32 shown in FIG. As the first vehicle 10 passes through the event 26, further data regarding the event 26 is received from the detector 32. Evidence values assigned to such consecutive events are accumulated. The message can be transferred only when the accumulated evidence value exceeds the transfer threshold. Thereby, the transfer of “wrong message” can be efficiently avoided. At the time shown in FIG. 2, the message 34 has already accumulated evidence values sufficient to be transferred, and has increased due to the movement of the first vehicle 10.

  As long as the vehicle 10 is in a pre-defined range close to the event 26, the first vehicle 10 can be any second in its communication area to notify vehicles that are in the event area. A message 34 is transmitted to the vehicle 12. One way to implement this function is in a broadcasting mode. As long as the first vehicle 10 is within a predefined range proximate to the event 26, it switches to the broadcast mode. In the broadcast mode, the message 34 is broadcasted by the first vehicle 10 to any second vehicle 12 that exists within the communication range. This function may, for example, warn the oncoming traffic of event 26 before the oncoming traffic encounters event 26.

  While the message 34 is transmitted by the vehicle 10, at step 814, the target destination 28 is selected based on the known route 22 (calculated by the in-vehicle navigation system 16) of the vehicle 10. For this selection, an electronic map containing possible locations for the target destination 28 and the target destination 30 is examined. Depending on the event, the message may have only one suitable target destination, in which case the step of selecting the target destination 28 and the target destination 30 is omitted. In such a case, the vehicle 10 aims to find a vehicle 12 that can effectively transmit a message to a suitable target destination.

  After a while, the situation becomes as shown in FIG. The second vehicle 12 exists within the communication range of the vehicle 10 at this time. Either geographical information about the current position of the second vehicle 12, at least one of the destination 20 and the route 24 is automatically sent from the vehicle 12 to the vehicle 10 or when a clear request is made from the vehicle 10. It is transmitted with. This step 816 is also shown in the flowchart 800 of FIG.

  Step 818 analyzes whether the route 24 of the second vehicle 12 is also included in the received geographic information. If only the destination 20 has been received, the route 24 of the vehicle 12 is calculated based on the destination 20 of the vehicle 12 by the in-vehicle navigation system 16 of the vehicle 10 in step 820.

  If the event information includes a type of event 26, target selection 822 may retrieve a potential target from a set of known target destinations associated with this type of event. For example, in the case of an accident, this selection may be based on an electronic map that includes the location of a police station. There are several other possible dependencies on event information.

  In general, selection 822 may depend on both event information and geographic information. The selection of at least one target destination can be based on the type of event, for example, in the case of equipment failure, a service station may be selected. At the same time, this target destination may be chosen to be positioned in the vicinity of the second route of the second vehicle 12. In this case, in step 822, the target destination 30 is selected as a potential carrier for the message 34 based on the type of route 24 and event 26 for the second vehicle 12.

  A next step 824 generally determines a relationship between at least two of the geographic information, message 34, target destination 28, and target destination 30.

  The group of steps 826 analyzes whether additional warnings regarding event 26 should be sent to vehicle 12. To achieve this goal, step 828 analyzes whether the route 24 of the vehicle 12 is approaching the event 26. If not, the next step 830 analyzes whether the current position of the vehicle 12 is within the area of the event 26. Here, the area of the event 26 includes the segment 36 in FIG. 3 of the road affected by the event 26. Since this point is also not applicable, the vehicle 10 does not send a warning to the vehicle 12.

  The next step analyzes whether it is actually effective to transfer the message 34 from the first vehicle 10 to the second vehicle 12 in terms of transfer delay. The first simple analysis is shown as step 832 which checks for the route 24 of the second vehicle 12 approaching the target destination 30. The positive result of the analysis according to step 832 may indicate the benefit of forwarding the message to the second vehicle 12.

  This embodiment applies a more sophisticated analysis by the group of steps 834. In step 836, the first discriminator for the first vehicle 10 is estimated by the navigation system mounted on the vehicle 10. In this embodiment, the first discriminator indicates the time until the vehicle 10 that follows the route 22 reaches the target destination 28. The second discriminator is defined by the time for the second vehicle 12 following the route 24 to reach the target destination 30. Step 838 analyzes whether or not a second discriminator has been received from the vehicle 12. The reception of the second discriminator may be necessary, for example, when the navigation system mounted on the first vehicle 10 fails to calculate the route 24 of the second vehicle 12. In such a situation, the vehicle 10 can optionally send a request to receive the second discriminator from the vehicle 12 to the vehicle 12 along with information about the target destination 30.

  In the present embodiment, since the route 24 of the second vehicle 12 is known, the second discriminator is estimated in the first vehicle 10 in step 840.

  According to an alternative embodiment, the second discriminator quantifies whether or in what circumstances the second vehicle 12 is approaching at least one target destination. If there are two or more target destinations, the second discriminator may include a list having entries for each target destination. The second discriminator may further include a weighting factor to quantify the importance or appropriateness of the target destination.

  A next step 842 compares the first discriminator with the second discriminator. In this example, the result of the comparison at step 842 indicates that the time for the vehicle 12 to reach its target destination 30 is shorter than the time for the vehicle 10 to reach its target destination 28. Based on this result, in step 850, a message 34 is transmitted from the first vehicle 10 to the second vehicle 12, as schematically illustrated in FIG.

  In general, when determining the relationship, it is considered whether the second vehicle 12 is more suitable for transporting the message 34 than the first vehicle 10. Thus, there is an advantage that the message 34 is hosted by a vehicle that normally travels according to at least one target destination 28 and target destination 30 due to its inherent movement of the message. Thus, the present invention translates into the advantage that the communication node is moving in delivering the message 34.

  Further, hosting message 34 in a vehicle that travels message 34 by its inherent movement allows propagation of message 34 even if there is no suitable second vehicle 12 in range or not at all. To. Therefore, there is an advantage that the present invention is extremely robust with respect to the variable density of the vehicle 10 and the vehicle 12.

  Even if the discriminator comparison results do not benefit the second vehicle 12, other reasons for transferring the message 34 to the second vehicle 12 may exist, for example, from the perspective of the communication device. . This is shown in step 844 which may follow step 842 if the discriminator comparison result in step 842 is negative. In this case, step 846 analyzes whether device information can be received from the second vehicle 12, possibly at the time requested.

  Given the device information, step 848 analyzes whether it is effective to forward the message 34 to the second vehicle 12 and to use the communication device of the vehicle 12. As an example, if the mobile phone mounted on the second vehicle 12 is accessible, the result of step 848 can be positive.

  In step 850 of sending the message 34, the above (accumulated) evidence value can be included in the message 34. Thus, for example, further evidence values can be assigned to message 34 and stored in second vehicle 12 by message 34.

  Whenever a message is sent to the second vehicle 12 in step 850 based on a positive result from one of the group of step 832, step 834 or step 844, the message is sent to the second vehicle 12 Passed to. That is, the vehicle 10 that previously hosted the message 34 continues to warn of traffic approaching according to the group at step 826, but no longer sends a message to another vehicle, and the other destination vehicle 1 To forward the message to the other. Thereby, the avalanche effect in the transfer of the message 34 is avoided.

In order to avoid redundant messages, the timer T34 assigned to the message 34 is started as the transmission of the message 34. The first vehicle 10 transmits a similar message 34 ′ after a while after the elapse of the predetermined waiting time, that is, if T 34> T _LATENCY . For example, if a “dense fog” type natural event 26 is detected in the region 36, the waiting time T _LATENCY is set to the shortest estimated time during which the fog clears in the region 36. As long as T34 <T _LATENCY , a similar message 34 ′ is sent if, for example, its detection location is outside the area 36 of the event 26 already reported by the message 34. This effectively makes it possible to update the extent of the event. The determination of whether to generate message 34 'also depends on the (accumulated) evidence value assigned (if available) to message 34 and the (accumulated) evidence value of current message 34'. Good. For example, the latency T _LATENCY can be calculated as a function of such evidence value.

  The message 34 is sent to the second vehicle 12 and the second vehicle 12 may be commanded to forward the message 34 to one or more specific target destinations 30 included as target information in the message 34. Although possible, it is still a task of the first vehicle 10 to forward the message 34 to one or more other target destinations 28. Thereby, the task of transferring the message 34 to the set of target destinations 28, 30 may be divided between two or more vehicles 10, vehicles 12. The target information may include a target destination type that generally identifies possible destinations instead of, or in addition to a clear target destination. This type of target destination effectively increases the second vehicle's flexibility in message transfer.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the second vehicle 12 takes over the message 34 exclusively. At this point, the message 34 is advanced by the movement of the second vehicle 12.

  It will be appreciated that an analog method for transferring the message 34 from the first vehicle 10 to the second vehicle 12 can be applied independent of the origin of the message 34. For example, instead of generating message 34 as a result of detected event 26, step 808 of flowchart 800 in FIG. 8 may be used in a manner similar to or otherwise received by vehicle 12 from vehicle 10. Thus, it is possible for the vehicle 10 to receive the message 34.

  Here, from the viewpoint of the vehicle 12, an embodiment of a complementary method according to a flowchart 900 as shown in FIG. 9 will be described.

  The complementary method embodiment begins by determining geographic information at step 910. This is executed when another vehicle 10 entering the communication range of the vehicle 12 requests. FIG. 3 shows a possible situation in this case. FIG. 3 also shows the next step 912 of sending geographic information from the vehicle 12 to the vehicle 10.

  There is also the possibility that the vehicle 10 will also require a discriminator for the vehicle 12 that is following the route 24 to arrive at the target destination 30. In that case, the navigation system 16 mounted on the vehicle 12 estimates the discriminator by calculating, for example, the road distance to the target destination 30 based on the electronic map. The resulting discriminator is stored, for example, to avoid its recalculation in later comparisons of different discriminators. The discriminator is transmitted from the vehicle 12 to the vehicle 10 in step 914.

  Further, it is possible for the vehicle 10 to request information regarding the equipment of the vehicle 12. Depending on predefined settings that may take into account data security issues and may require the vehicle 10 to send a certificate of approval, the vehicle 12 may request the equipment information requested by step 916. Send.

  As shown in FIG. 4, a message is received from the vehicle 10 at step 918 and its relevance to the vehicle 12 is analyzed at step 920. If the result of the analysis 920 is positive, for example, because the received message is a warning, the information contained in the message 34 is signaled in the vehicle 12 at step 922. In order to perform signaling, a signaling unit 38 shown in FIG. 7 is applied. It is often important to perform warning signaling even outside the vehicle 12. In order to achieve this purpose, the signaling unit 38 directly controls the warning light of the vehicle 12. An example showing this advantage is given by the receipt of a message warning about traffic jams ahead of the highway. The warning light on the vehicle 12 then alerts the following vehicle, thus reducing the risk of rear-end collision.

  Regardless of the outcome of step 920, step 924 analyzes whether the message contains specific target information that includes at least one target destination. Instead of or in addition to a clear target destination, the target destination may include some type of target destination, i.e. a predefined or common identifier (e.g. "Hospital within 20 km radius"). Is possible. If no clear target destination is included, step 926 selects at least one target destination. At least one target destination is assigned along the route 24 to the target destination type (if received) or to the received message 34 or included in the event information of the message 34 Depending on the selected. In general, the selection of at least one target destination for transferring message 34 associated with event 26 depends on the event information.

  The received message may be further augmented with additional information available to the vehicle 12 at step 928. Additional information may be chosen depending on the type of message 34 or depending on the target destination 30 selected. For example, the additional information may include a time stamp, information regarding traffic jams, or sensor information of the vehicle 12. Possible sensor information may include an average speed of the vehicle 12 that may indicate the presence of a traffic jam.

  In order to ensure that message 34 is not trapped in a vehicle that is in a traffic jam, step 926 of selecting at least one target destination is an update on current traffic conditions. May be repeated to include Thus, the target destination can be adjusted, for example, for a vehicle ahead in a traffic jam or a vehicle passing through a jammed road.

  Step 930 analyzes whether there is a message in the vehicle 12 that has a common content or at least one common target destination. If so, in step 932, messages with redundant information or equal destinations are merged. The implementation of step 932 for common target destinations deletes all but one message header (including the common target destination) and concatenates the message contents. Another implementation of step 932 for common content assigns a predefined category to the data records in message 34 or sorts the data records in message 34 according to the predefined categories. Following this, redundant data records in each predefined category are deleted.

  In the case schematically illustrated in FIG. 5, vehicle 12 hosts message 34 and no other messages. Accordingly, step 930 is taken over by step 934 and a message 34 is transmitted to the target destination 30 as shown in FIG. Thereby, the message 34 has reached at least one of the target destinations.

  The step 934 of sending the message 34 to the at least one target destination 30 may be triggered by reaching the target destination 30 in some proximity. This step 934 may also be triggered by a discriminator reaching a prescribed value or exceeding a predefined limit value. Additionally or alternatively, step 934 may be triggered by checking the robustness of the communication connection with at least one target destination 30.

  For example, if the vehicle 10 is involved in an event that is an accident in which the vehicle 10 cannot move, the transfer of the message 34 is tracked as shown in the flowchart 1000 of FIG. 10 illustrating a further method embodiment. This method embodiment may be performed in the context of FIGS. 8A, 8B and 9 in combination with or as an alternative to the method embodiment described above.

  After detecting an event in the first step 1010 (on the first vehicle 10), in step 1020, the message 34 includes the forwarding information. The forwarding information includes a type of event or a target destination type that allows the second vehicle to select a corresponding target destination. If the step of selecting is within the capability of the first vehicle 10, the transfer information immediately includes at least one target destination 28, target destination 30 selected by the first vehicle 10. .

  In step 1030, the first vehicle 10 broadcasts the message, so any second vehicle 12 that enters the communication range of the vehicle 10 receives the message. The receiving second vehicle 12 optionally decides to accept or refuse to forward the message 34. This decision is based on the transfer information. To achieve this goal, the receiving second vehicle 12 analyzes whether the route matches at least one target destination 28, target destination 30. The analysis may be quantified by a discriminator as described above. If the route does not match, the vehicle 12 cancels the message (optionally by sending a rejection). If the analysis is negative after the message is formally transferred to the vehicle 12, the message is returned to the vehicle 10. The rejection sent by the second vehicle 12 may be a partial rejection. That is, some transfers of the target destination are acknowledged, while some other destinations are rejected. The first vehicle 10 continues to send a message each time a rejection is received. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that by deleting an acknowledged target destination from the list of at least one target destination, the avalanche effect of the message is avoided. This feature of the present method embodiment effectively allows any variant of the transfer method described above to be extended to vehicles involved in an accident.

  Further, it is teaching from the viewpoint of the message 34 itself. As a result of the method described above, the message 34 acts like a “virtual hitchhiker” in the host vehicle, depending on the geographical information of the host vehicle. The geographical information includes at least one of a current position, a host vehicle destination, and a host vehicle route.

  According to an embodiment of a computer program product that may be combined with any of the embodiments described so far, at least some of the foregoing steps are performed by a transport agent module 40 shown in FIG. , For example, as a stand-alone library referred to as a transport agent module library 41. As a specific example, the message may be implemented in an object-oriented way as a general object. Hereinafter, the generic object is referred to as “transport agent”. Message 34 is a data member associated with the transport agent, and at least some of the methods described above are included as transport agent methods.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the transport agent module 40 executes a transport agent using the transport agent module library 41 and has access to the navigation system 16 mounted on the host vehicle. The transport agent can communicate by wireless communication technology such as the wireless network interface 14 of the host vehicle. The transport agent module 40 further enables the transport agent to exchange information with the driving assistance system 42. The driving support system 42 may include a detection unit 32, a signaling unit 38, and a sensor unit (44).

  The transport agent module 40 or the transport agent module library 41 uses the wireless network interface 14 to route a message of a higher level application, for example a driving assistance system 42, within the ad hoc network of the vehicle. Function can be provided. This allows the method to configure a communication network without configuring a stationary gateway as the center of communication. Since such a stationary infrastructure is not required, the service cost is relatively low. Furthermore, stationary antenna systems positioned on high ground are often considered to interfere with the environment or landscape, but this can also be avoided by the present method.

  The transport agent may calculate by accessing the navigation system 16 a route that the message 34 or the transport agent itself reaches one or more of its target destination 28, target destination 30. The transport agent may further determine the relationship between the calculated route and the host vehicle route 22 or the host vehicle route 24.

  Using the wireless network interface 14, the transportation agent is adapted to receive geographic information from one or more other vehicles. The transport agent can assign a discriminator to each of one or more other vehicles. As described above, the discriminator may quantify whether one or more other vehicle routes better match the message 34 or the calculated route of the transport agent. Specifically, the discriminator may quantify whether the received geographic information is the same route, but indicates a faster moving speed. Furthermore, in the case of the same route and the same moving speed, the discriminator may access the position of one or more other vehicles. The latter evaluation is critical for transport agents, for example, if the host vehicle cannot move due to traffic jams. Under this circumstance, the transport agent can decide to move forward by repeatedly changing its current host vehicle using the wireless network interface 14. As a result, the transport agent effectively executes the policy of repeatedly changing the host vehicle under heavy traffic conditions, and if the communication link is rare, the transport agent moves forward by moving the host vehicle. be able to.

  The transport agent may further interact with other transport agents hosted by the transport agent module 40. The interaction can include a merge agent 932 of transport agents or messages 34 having at least one common target destination.

  A new transport agent or message 34 is generated by the transport agent module 40 as a result of the event 26 detected by the detector 32, as shown in FIG. The transport agent message 34 may be augmented by data received from the sensor unit 44.

  In addition to its function of assigning message routes, the transport agent module 40 uses the signaling unit 38 to signal information of the transport agent or its message 34 within the host vehicle.

  The transport agent module can also be implemented as a device 40 comprising a processor 50, a memory 52 accessible to the processor 50, and a transport agent module library 41 stored in the memory 52. The transport agent 40 is adapted to perform any one of the above steps for transferring the transport agent or its message 34 to at least one target destination. Device 40 may exchange data with radio network interface / module 14 that provides receiver and transmitter functionality.

  The processor 50 is further adapted to determine a relationship regarding the route of one or more other vehicles approaching the at least one target destination. If the route of the vehicle 12 is not yet known, the processor 50 may be further adapted to calculate the route of the vehicle 12 using an electronic map. The calculation may be based on the received geographic information. In determining the relationship, the processor 50 may be adapted to calculate the shortest distance between the route of the vehicle 12 and the at least one target destination. The shortest distance can be compared to the maximum range of transmitter 54 by processor 50 to determine transmission of message 34.

  As will be apparent from the embodiments described above, the methods described herein provide various advantages. First of all, these methods can be implemented using existing and widespread technologies such as electronic navigation systems and wireless communication devices. In certain circumstances, the method described herein will deliver a message to a target destination when the specified communication network is remote and local access to the stationary communication infrastructure is unavailable. It may be the only efficient way. Furthermore, the message can be stored for a longer time even if there is no communication connection to the desired target destination. Specifically, it is possible to prevent or at least reduce overload of available communication resources (optionally, the broadcast mode in the case of a demarcated danger zone is an exception).

  The method presented herein takes advantage of the fact that a mobile communication node moves (at least partially) on a known route and / or (at least partially) to a known destination. . Furthermore, these methods provide a message merge function and a message delivery function that can be performed while the communication nodes (vehicles) move to their destination.

  While specific individual embodiments have been shown and described above, various changes, modifications and substitutions may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. All such variations, modifications and substitutions are intended to be encompassed by the following claims.

Claims (28)

Receiving geographical information relating to at least one of the position, route and destination of the second vehicle (12);
Determining a relationship between the geographical information and at least one target destination;
Depending on the outcome of the determination, conditionally sending a message to the second vehicle (12),
A method wherein the steps are performed by a first vehicle (10) to forward the message to at least one of the target destinations.   The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises event information regarding an event.   The method of claim 2, further comprising detecting the event at or near the first vehicle. Further comprising generating the message;
The method of claim 3, wherein the generation of the message is triggered by the detection of the event.   The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the event information comprises at least one of the time, location and type of the event.   6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the event is associated with at least one of a traffic accident, a traffic delay and a traffic disturbance.   7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising selecting at least one target destination, wherein the selection of the target destination depends on at least one of the event information and the geographical information. The method described in 1.   The step of determining the relationship includes evaluating whether at least one of the location, the route, and the destination of the second vehicle encounters the area of the event. The method according to claim 7.   The step of determining the relationship includes determining whether the position of the second vehicle is closer to or closer to at least one target destination than the first vehicle, or the route of the second vehicle. 9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising assessing whether or not is approaching at least one of the target destinations.   Determining the relationship includes: a first discriminator for the first vehicle approaching at least one of the target destinations; and a second vehicle approaching at least one of the target destinations. 10. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, comprising determining at least one of the second discriminators for. Further comprising determining each of the first discriminator and the second discriminator and comparing the first discriminator and the second discriminator;
The method of claim 10, wherein sending the message to the second vehicle depends on the result of the comparison.   12. A method according to claim 10 or claim 11, wherein the discriminator is a time period or a distance measure. Determining geographic information relating to at least one of the position, route and destination of the first vehicle (12);
Transmitting the geographical information to a second vehicle (10);
Receiving a message from the second vehicle (10) in response to the transmission of the geographic information;
A method wherein the step is performed by the first vehicle (12) to forward the message to at least one target destination.   The method of claim 13, wherein the message comprises event information regarding an event.   15. The method according to claim 13 or 14, further comprising selecting at least one of the target destinations depending on at least one of the event information and the geographical information.   The method according to any one of claims 13 to 15, further comprising the step of transmitting the message to at least one of the target destinations.   The method according to any one of claims 1 to 16, further comprising calculating a vehicle route or a message route based on the geographical information.   The method according to any one of claims 1 to 17, further comprising the step of signaling information about the received message.   19. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising the step of merging redundant messages or messages having at least one common target destination. Detecting an event by the first vehicle (10);
Generating a message in response to detection of the event, wherein the message includes at least one of event information and a target destination;
Transmitting the message to a second vehicle (12) for transmission to the target destination,
A method wherein the steps are performed by the first vehicle (10) to forward a message to at least one of the target destinations.   21. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 20, wherein wireless communication is applied for transmission and / or reception.   22. A computer program product comprising a program code portion for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 21 when executed on one or more computing devices.   23. The computer program product of claim 22, stored on a computer readable recording medium. A receiver (54) adapted to receive geographical information regarding at least one of the location, route (24) and destination (20) of the second vehicle (12);
A processor (50) adapted to determine a relationship between said geographic information and at least one target destination (28, 30);
A transmitter (54) adapted to conditionally transmit a message (34) to the second vehicle (12) depending on the result of the determination;
A device (40, 46, 48) adapted to be used onboard a first vehicle (10) to forward the message (34) to at least one target destination (28, 30) .   The processor (50) determines or compares discriminators for the first vehicle and the second vehicle (10, 12) that are approaching at least one of the target destinations (28, 30). 25. The device of claim 24, further adapted. A processor (50) adapted to determine geographical information relating to at least one of the position, route (24) and destination (20) of the first vehicle (12);
A transmitter (54) adapted to transmit the geographical information to a second vehicle (10);
A receiver (54) adapted to receive a message (34) from the second vehicle (10) in response to the transmission of the geographic information;
Devices (40, 46, 48) adapted to be used onboard the first vehicle (12) to forward the message (34) to at least one target destination (28, 30) ). A detector (32) adapted to detect an event by the first vehicle (10);
A processor (50) adapted to generate a message (34) in response to detection of the event, the message (34) comprising at least one of event information and a target destination;
A transmitter (54) adapted to transmit the message to a second vehicle (12) for transport to the target destination;
Devices (40, 46, 48) adapted to be used onboard the first vehicle (10) to forward the message (34) to at least one target destination (28, 30) ).   28. A device according to any one of claims 24 to 27, further comprising a signaling part (44) adapted to inform information relating to the message (34).

Images